Winter Sleep (2014)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Winter Sleep (2014) – N. B. Ceylan

There is much to chew on in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s three hour palme d’or winning character study of a rich self-satisfied man too unable to feel empathy for those around him.  Haluk Bilginer fully inhabits the small-minded man (named Aydin, or “Intellectual” in Turkish) who wants to see himself in larger-than-life terms but in fact is the epitome of Sartre’s concept of bad faith.  He pretends not to notice the hardships and dissatisfaction of those around him and his role in their fates.  He allows an intermediary to repossess a TV and furniture from his tenants and to threaten them with eviction. He traps his younger wife into a secluded life where she is unable to pursue her own ambitions and he condescendingly meddles when she tries.  But Ceylan asks more questions than he answers. When the wife attempts to act in good faith by donating money to charity and to others who she thinks are needy, has she done the wrong thing or the right thing?  More than once, it is suggested that she just seeks to assuage her own guilt at being well-off and it seems that hand-outs probably don’t allow the recipient to retain enough dignity to be acceptable.  Apparently based loosely on Chekhov, the themes are mulled over through conversation after conversation, many ending in bitterness.  Through it all, Aydin has his defences up, even as he seems to be acknowledging his own flaws – an easy trick that anyone can play.  Perhaps this is why the title refers to hibernation and Ceylan sets the film in Turkey’s rocky and isolated Cappadocia region; this is a man who has receded into himself, no longer willing to accept that he should act differently or to pay attention to the world around him and the other people in it (aside from his perception of what they are or should be).  Finally, even without all these ideas swirling around, the film would be worth seeing just for the stunning cinematography:  amazing snowy landscapes and cosy fire-lit interiors abound.  And I’m still chewing.